Hugo held up the necklace and said, “This was an engagement gift for my cousin, Kaina Haventhorn, who was recently abducted. The inscription you saw on the back was that of my family crest, and so by purchasing this necklace, you have not only traded stolen goods, but you have also aided those who abducted my cousin, whom I might add is set to wed his majesty, Prince Casimir.”
The shopkeeper gulped and the color instantly drained from his face.
“In other words, you can be charged with aiding and abetting the abduction of a royal, which I don't have to tell you carries an automatic death sentence. I thus leave you with two options: I can take the necklace back and pretend this encounter never occurred, or I can let you keep it and report the transaction to the prince himself. I'm certain you wouldn't want to have to explain to him how you came into possession of the very necklace his future queen was wearing when she was taken. The choice is yours.”
Instead of responding, the shopkeeper shrunk back behind the counter, but Hugo understood his answer nonetheless.
Without breaking his gaze, Hugo placed his hand on the door to the shop and said, “It's been a pleasure doing business with you.”
He then turned, exited the shop, and slammed the door shut.
After leaving Haventhorn Manor with little explanation to their hosts, Azemar and Casimir departed from Eboncrest on horseback late into the night. They took a lesser known trail that stretched east away from the town without so much as a guard to help fend off any highwaymen, though Casimir suspected that they could easily take a small gang if necessary. Even still, the adviser had been less than forthright about where he was taking him, and Casimir wasn't certain he wanted to know.
After nearly an hour of silence save for the hooves of their horses kicking the dirt with each step, Casimir said, “Would you care to tell me where it is you're taking me, Azemar? If I didn't know any better, I'd say you intend to kill me.”
“If I meant to kill you, Prince, you wouldn't know until it was too late,” Azemar said. “As for where we are going, I am showing you a faster way to get to Eldercliff.”
Casimir scoffed. “I grow weary of your games. How is it there can be a quicker way to get to Eldercliff in the wrong direction?”
Azemar said nothing, and before Casimir could speak again, something further up the road caught his eye. Two figures stood still out in the middle of the road, and from his position he could tell that they were watching them. The prince placed a hand on the sword on his belt, waiting for the first sign of movement.
Though Azemar never took his eyes off the road, he somehow knew of Casimir's apprehension and remarked, “Stay your weapon, Sire. We are not among enemies.”
Casimir never removed his hand, even as he saw the strange men donning the familiar black robes that all the Disciples wore. He had no trust for these strange people regardless of any alliance Roric or any of his other ancestors made with them.
When Azemar reached the two men, he dismounted his horse without a word and handed his reins over to one of them. He then gestured for Casimir to do the same, and though he had his suspicions, the prince reluctantly complied.
With their horses secured by the unknown men, Azemar turned to Casimir and said, “We walk from here. Follow me.”
For reasons unknown to Casimir, Azemar turned off of the road and opted to head north into the woods. They descended up a steep hill, and as they did so the woods around them became much denser and cast deeper shadows. The more Casimir thought about his surroundings, the more he realized that it was the perfect place to go when one didn't want to be found.
Casimir's boots sloshed through the mud, his every step labored as the grime clung to his feet. It didn't take long for him to realize that he hadn't noticed a single creature in the forest, not even an owl on its nocturnal hunt. In fact, the only sounds he could hear were his own heavy breathing and the crisp, wet crunch of freshly fallen leaves as they became wedged between his feet and the mud.
After what felt like hours, Casimir finally said, “When all of this is done, Azemar, you'll be lucky if you still have a job.”
“You're always so gracious, Sire,” Azemar remarked. “Nevertheless, we're here.”
Casimir looked over Azemar's shoulder and saw an old shack in the distance. With the amount of brush and foliage in the immediate area, it was easy to determine that the site would be difficult to find if one didn't know where to look. The prince imagined that even Elias Haventhorn had no knowledge of it, despite claiming that he knew the entire Crescent Mountain by heart.
As they approached the shack, another man in Disciples' garb stepped outside to meet them.
“Lord Azemar, Prince Casimir,” the man said, “we received your message, and we made certain that the gate would be ready as you requested.”
“Gate?” Casimir asked. “What gate?”
Much to the prince's annoyance, Azemar ignored his question and said, “What about our guest?”
“He won't be any trouble,” the Disciple answered.
“Good,” Azemar replied. “Take us to him.”
Azemar and the Disciple stepped into the shack and Casimir followed in spite of his better judgment. The shack was empty save for a few chairs in front of a bare, unlit fireplace. The only windows were nothing more than empty, square-shaped holes carved into gray, weathered wood on either side of the door. Even the door was merely a series of rotten planks bound together with frayed twine and was handing barely onto the frame by the same material. The floor, if one could even call it that, was nothing more than leveled mud than an amateur carpenter built shabby walls around and called it a home. Given that the ceiling was nothing more than sheets and sticks and straw fashioned into a roof, the tattered and weathered condition of this pitiful shack came as no surprise.
As Casimir stared in horror around the shack and wondered what kind of urchin would actually call this place home, it occurred to him that he could see no “gate” or “guest” that the Disciple had referred to. He took another look around to ensure he hadn't missed anything, then he turned to Azemar and said, “What's going on here? What is this place?”
“This is one of the Disciples' many hideouts in Ilesia. It is here where we will get to Eldercliff and head off Kaina Haventhorn.”
Before Casimir could press for more information, Azemar turned back to the Disciple and said, “Lead us to the gate.”
At this point, Casimir presumed it would simply be better to simply wait, as he wasn't getting any answers otherwise. He followed the two men to the corner of the room, where the Disciple bent down to the floor. The Disciple brushed away a layer of mud that had been intentionally caked onto a wooden surface. Upon closer inspection, Casimir could see that the Disciple had revealed a trap door.
The Disciple lifted the trap door to reveal a ladder that Casimir assumed led to a basement. Azemar entered first, and the Disciple bid the prince to follow. He complied, and when Casimir was halfway down the ladder, he was surprised to see the trap door close above him with the Disciples still on the other side.
Casimir halted his descent and stared at the trap door in confusion, for he soon heard him say, “Someone has to remain on the surface at all times so that they can obscure the entrance and deter curious trespassers.”
Casimir arched his brow, but he still shrugged and continued down the ladder.
When the prince finally reached the bottom, he was surprised to find not a mud floor, but fine, polished stone. As soon as he turned away from the ladder, he saw what could easily have served as an aristocrat's private quarters. The chamber was at least twice the size of the decrepit, one room shack above, and the ceiling reached twice as high. The walls and ceiling were made in a similar fashion and bore strange carvings along each post holding the ground level upright, symbols that no book in Ilesia would contain.
In the center of the chamber, two men stood on either side of a worn, battered old man with perfectly round spectacles, though the glass in the center of ea
ch frame had smudged of dirt and grime. His disheveled hair was gray, and his weary eyes were blue, as was the tattered remnants of his robe.
Azemar approached the old man, who didn't look up, and said, “Good evening, Aldis. You're looking well.”
Upon detecting the sarcasm in his tone, Aldis looked up slightly and said, “As well as I can be.”
Azemar chuckled and said, “Well I have terrific news: you are coming with us to Eldercliff.”
Aldis remained silent.
“You see,” Azemar continued, “we have reason to believe that Kaina Haventhorn has almost reached the city, and as you know fully well, we cannot allow her to deliver the book to Melchior.”
Aldis remained silent.
“As a matter of fact,” Azemar continued, “you were so willing to give yourself up for her sake that I have no doubt she would be willing to do the same for you.”
Aldis made every attempt to conceal the worry in his eyes, but even Casimir could see that the old man knew Azemar's words to be true.
Azemar turned towards the opposite corner of the chamber, where a large structure had been concealed by an enormous sheet and pulled it off to reveal a stone archway carved with the exact same symbols as those on the posts. He grazed his fingers over the rough stone, tracing each symbol as he went along, and he muttered under his breath as he did.
“Yes...” he muttered, “...yes, this is perfect. This will get us to Eldercliff.”
Casimir scoffed. “How is an empty archway going to get us to Eldercliff?”
Azemar turned to face Casimir and in the calmest tone he could muster, “Observe.”
The old man took several steps back from the archway and stood directly in front of it. He lifted his hand and held it out towards the structure. He stood motionless for several seconds, and just before Casimir marched over to him and knocked his head clean off, he began to mutter in an ancient, unknown language. With his free hand, he produced a handful of a fine, blue dust from within his robe pocket. Azemar tossed the substance at the foot of the archway, and as soon as it made contact with the stone, the symbols began to glow.
In the center of the empty archway, a light formed with seemingly no source and grew larger with every second that passed. The light formed a spiral as it circled outward, forming an image in the middle before long. At first the image appeared cloudy, as though one were looking through a glass window after a snow storm. The image grew and became clearer with each passing second until it resembled not a window, but an open door.
Azemar ceased his hypnotic chant, turned back to the men holding Aldis, and gestured for them to follow. The men obeyed and Azemar turned back towards the archway and to Casimir's astonishment, he stepped right into the image formed in the center. The men soon followed him with Aldis, and after much debate with himself, Casimir finally followed as well.
After stepping through the image, Casimir found himself in another stone chamber, but he could tell straight away that he was no longer in the same room as before. For starters, this room was much larger, though every bit as polished as the previous one. Several people stared back at him, all of which donned the Disciples' robes, and a statue of a horned, devilish figure Casimir had only seen crude depictions of in illustrations stood proudly on the opposite end of the room and towered over everyone. As Casimir stared around the room in awe, Azemar approached the archway and uttered another, quicker chant. At once the light as well as the image of the shack's basement vanished as though they never existed at all.
After several moments of processing what had just occurred, Casimir finally asked, “Where are we? Where have you taken me?”
Azemar met the prince's gaze and replied, “I should think you would know that answer, Sire. I've taken you to Eldercliff.”
Chapter 17
As night fell over the eastern plains of Ilesia, Eldercliff soon became as lit up as the night sky when no clouds were present to obscure its beauty. Kaina recalled a night about a year prior when Aldis had brought his telescope to allow her to observe the stars and various planets near their own. The moment she looked through the eye piece and saw the majesty of the cosmos up close, she knew that she would never truly comprehend the world around her.
“Are you all right?” Tristan asked, snapping her out of her trance.
Kaina blinked and met his stoic gaze. “I'm fine. I was just...thinking...”
Fortunately Tristan didn't press, but instead shifted his attention back to the approaching city.
“I've always heard tales of Eldercliff's beauty at night, but the rumors couldn't hope to do it justice,” he said.
Kaina followed his gaze and admired the hundreds of lights dotting the steep walkway that led up the cliff and said, “That's true, although I can't imagine what made people want to climb up there every day with supplies to build a city.”
“Aye but it makes a tough time for invaders to get into the city,” the driver said. “It was once the capital of Ilesia, you know, so they wanted to take every measure possible to prevent a siege.”
Tristan furrowed his brow. “I'm not certain I would want to live in a city that could collapse a thousands feet with the slightest rock slide, but it's pleasant to look at for sure.”
“I wouldn't worry about that,” the driver said. “The city hasn't fallen in over four hundred years. Heck, no one has even dared to invade in the entire reign of Roric or his descendants, all except for those rebels everyone's talking about.”
Kaina and Tristan exchanged a glance, smirked, and the former said, “Rebels?”
“You haven't heard?” the driver asked, turning his head sideways. “There's been talk among the locals that a rebellion's been brewin' in the east, and some people say they spotted them in the Ashlands. 'Asher Riders,' I think they're called. Bunch of hooey if you ask me. If anyone around these parts were startin' any trouble, the Crimson Knights would've taken care of them by now.”
Kaina and Tristan met each others' gaze and each had to suppress a chuckle.
As the coach finally reached the bottom end of the slope, Kaina could see two city guards stationed at an archway as well as a few farms and inns in the surrounding areas. The driver nodded to the guards, then rode right through the archway and up the slope.
Kaina could only describe the slope as something a spiral staircase, only this one had been carved out of rock and only had a simple wooden guard rail to prevent anyone or anything from falling off. She imagined that this was intentional as an extra precaution against invaders, since hoards of soldiers would likely fall off the edge in their hast to storm the city above.
After an eternity of edging up the slope and hugging the cliff, the coach finally made it to the top. The city's gates lie just a few yards away, and they continued to form an entire wall ten foot tall around the perimeter of the city. Another inn stood to the right of the city wall, and across the path from there stood a large stable. The driver led his horse to left, closer to the stable, and came to a halt just in front of the opening to lead horses inside.
“This is where I let you off. If you want a ride back, I'll be leaving in the morning,” he said.
Kaina and Tristan thanked him and headed for the gates, which had been opened to allow a crowd of travelers inside. They squeezed in with the crowd, and thankfully the guards didn't even grant them a second glance. Seconds later, they had entered the grand city of Eldercliff.
All at once, Kaina took in the splendor of the city she had only heard stories about. The gates opened directly into the town square, which was framed by the finest inns and restaurants, as well as scores of shops and merchant stalls, and every single door was illuminated by matching glass sconces on either side. The street was lined with stone and lantern posts on every corner, complete with sewer grates to prevent flooding. The stonework formed a flawless, round design around a fountain in the center of the square, which bore a statue of Roric as he held a sword proudly in the air, water pouring from beneath his feet into a pool below.
“Where to now?” Tristan asked.
Kaina ran back through Aldis' instructions in her mind, then said, “We have to find a pigeon coup and send out three white doves with black slips of paper.”
Tristan scanned the square, then pointed to a corner off to the left end and said, “There's the pigeon coup. Let's go.”
Kaina spotted the coup, which was right next to one of the inns, and she and Tristan marched through the crowd of people examining the doubtless fake jewels one of the caravans was selling. Once they made it through the sea of gullible travelers, Kaina could see a freckled young man accepting payment from a traveler before he released a pigeon into the air with a message tied to its leg.
Upon closer inspection, Kaina had no doubt that the boy running the pigeon coup was even younger than herself. He bore not a single sign of the first hair on his chin, and his ginger hair was nothing more than a curly pile atop his head. Every time he moved his head, his hair moved in such a way that Kaina thought the whole clump would fly off at any moment.
The boy smiled when the newcomers approached and even though he stood up to his full height with enough zeal to rival a Crimson Knight, he was still about a hand's width shorter than Kaina.
“Good evening Milady, Milord,” the eager young man said, his voice just beginning to shift from a boy's to a man's, “what can I do for you?”
Kaina pointed to the pigeon coup, where she saw twelve white doves near the top, and said, “I would like to send out three of those doves, please.”
The pigeon boy nodded and said, “Of course. They certainly are popular for higher class citizens of Eldercliff. Who shall I send them to?”
Kaina froze. “I...er...”
Tristan stared at her and said, “Aldis did tell you who to send the doves to, didn't he?”
Kaina shut her eyes and put her hand to her forehead in frustration. “No...he never told me.”
“Well...” the pigeon boy said, “we do sometimes send out the pigeons without any set destination. We do this with general city notices to get important information out quickly.”
Kaina's Dawn (Kaina Saga Book 1) Page 18